The Great Reset

Hello, my sweet friends,

Gosh, I've missed you.  If you're reading this it's probably because I directed you to my long-forgotten blog.  I'm resurfacing after a month-long Instagram break.  I felt a strong NUDGE to get off social media.  Usually, I take a day or two off and this time I just knew it had to be longer, much longer. 

Remember the train derailment in Ohio a little bit ago?  That freaked me out!  I think we get a little acclimated to all of the fear-mongering and the constant bad news, but the thought of our water supply being messed up and those people's lives being completely disrupted by something out of their control.  Well, it wrecked me.  I don't lose my peace easily, so it was time to evaluate my emotions and I felt the need to back off from screen time.  I don't watch the news, so the accounts on social media were influencing my emotions and in complete honesty, I was getting out of the presence of God's perfect peace.  Because when we stay in tune with Him all the crazy has a way of getting less scary. 

The day after I uninstalled Instagram, I was taking my walk on our hill, and I felt the Lord say, "Finally!"  It was like He was just waiting for me to put my phone down and get my eyes back on Him, so He could speak to me.  And speak to me He did, and not just on that walk, but revelation after revelation all.month.long!  When I say it was good I MEAN IT!  I'm changed.

The first "epiphany" I had was that I wasn't going back to the way I'd been doing Instagram.  Aside from this week, I'm keeping it off my phone. This week is hard, because I'm traveling to Mississippi and Texas for the "Love is a Battlefield" event in Round Top, TEXAS!!! There are tickets STILL AVAILABLE!! Please come hear my talk about breaking free from friendship hurts!  It's a word from the Lord 100%!!  I don't speak in front of people because it terrifies me, but I'm filled with so much peace!  That HAS to be Him.  I finally get to share my story and I just know it's going to set people FREE!  

So Instagram... it's staying uninstalled.  Did you know you can use it from your laptop?!!  I have to figure out how to do stories, but that's a price I'm willing to pay.  I'm going back to blogging.  And the freedom I feel with that decision is enough to make me weepy.  Blogging is where it all began.  Looking for joy in the small things...  Seeing God everywhere, and in all the things around me, and sharing it with you was for me the highest high, and it saved me from a deep hole of depression.  I got lost along the way.  Instagram was easy and accessible, but it became a huge distraction and I'm ready to get back on track.

The second "Epiphany" was about my health.  This is a long story and I'll make sure to share it soon, but basically, I've been bouncing around doctors' offices all month long and I'm so full of hope.  Not from the doctors, but from doing my own research and finally laying down some bad habits and picking up eye-opening insight that is breaking chains.  There's a lot to tell you and I'm still on this information-gathering journey, but I promise to keep you in the loop.  

The third epiphany is that I love painting!  I knew I did, but due to the constant distractions, I didn't make time to do it.  With my head clear and no self-imposed deadlines, I created seven new paintings this month! Seven!!   I have 5 more to go for my Maine Series, which I plan on turning into this year's calendar.  I've been marveling at my Creator once again.  He's helping me paint people! That's not my specialty and I'm doing it!  

So that's where I'm at friends.  This blog is getting dusted off and I'm hoping to post new epiphanies once a week!  There are other things on my heart I'm praying about too, but I think this is a first step.  I pray you follow along.  Good things are coming:) 

 

You are so loved! 

Becky 

 

                                                                            

 

Thoughts on Kim Kardashian and a give-away!

Good morning sweet peeps.  Hope you all had an amazing Easter.  We did!  It's Monday morning and as you read this my girlies and I are on our way to meet a very special someone!  Eeeeeek:))  We are road trippin' people!!  Spring Break has sprung and we are pouncing on it.  Can't wait to tell you all the details...if you want follow along on IG...my name is farmgirlpaints.

So in honor of my sweet friend I thought I'd try my hat at random again. She's sorta the queen of that:)

 

It dawned on me the other day that one of my biggest fears about moving here was losing my sunset views. If you follow along with me on IG you know that was a really silly fear of mine. 

I may not see the ground in my views, but they are still spectacular.  When we lived in MN our house was positioned perfectly to take in the most amazing sunsets night after night.  We overlooked an old farmhouse with cows and barns and all the things I hold dear, and it was just a very special place.  I really mourned that view initially.  I know that sounds crazy, but the sun and I have a thing.  We just do;)  I thought the trees were going to ruin my view, but I was wrong.  They are different, but wonderful all the same.

 

 

It became clear to me that we may have a certain idea in our heads of the way things have to be and God may have something entirely different in mind.  He knows what we love.  He knows what we need and even if it's not exactly the way we want it, He's gonna take care of us.  Love Him! 

I've really been having fun painting lately.  I can't tell you how good it feels to swirl paint again.  I've had a few people ask me if I would do custom pet paintings and I can tell you with 100% certainty that no I will not do custom pet, house or really any other paintings.  At least right now.

I felt such relief when I finally decided to stop the home paintings.  It was fun initially and then I made it WORK!  And any time painting becomes work I hate it!  That sounds nuts, but it's true.  When I paint what I want, when I want it's pure joy.  Pure BLISS!  I will figure out how to get prints made though.  So keep a look out for that:)

This week I finally took time and pampered myself BIG.  Honey gave me a gift certificate for Christmas to spend at a day spa and it was way past due that I checked myself in! 

Let's just say I'm not good at taking care of certain things.  Like my feet;)  They were so bad the poor girl had to get three different kinds of "cheese" grater things out.  My friend Tamara made fun of me soooo bad.  She's good at that;)  It's just my genetics I guess to have really callused, really thick heels.  Not any more though...my feet are soft and smooth like a baby's butt now.  It's moving up on my priority list to do this more often.  We need to take the time.  It's pretty important.

Okay so my honey travels alot and when he's gone I have nothing to watch on tv.  Nothing!  Because all our shows are on DVR I have to wait for him!  I'm explaining this because I feel like I need to clarify that Kim Kardashian is not the first thing I would pick to watch, but when you are doing the elliptical machine you need something to entertain.  And entertain she does. 


Is it weird that she breaks my heart??  Literally my heart hurts for this girl.  She is so wrapped up in the superficial...the clothes, her outward appearance...the glam that I fear she is going to go mental someday.  What in the world is she going to do when she looks in the mirror in the future and she's old?  Outward beauty fades.  I can attest to that.  I'm starting to see it myself.  OR that day when her fame will disappear...remember Paris Hilton?  I can, but just barely.  Anyway I just want to open her vacant eyes and fill it with something...Someone that can change her focus.  Let's pray for Kim.

The Journey of Letting Go Trailer from Revilo Designs on Vimeo.

Okay if you're still with me you deserve a cookie or something.  So here it is;)  My multi-talented friend Jeanne is offering 5 spots to her new "Letting Go" class.  I have no doubt it's going to be AMAZING!  I know alot of you have that inner desire to create and you don't know where to start.  Jeanne is really good at taking you by the hand and teaching you some amazing techniques.  So even if you don't win check into it.  Sign up.  It will be so fun to spread those art wings:)  To enter leave me a comment and be random.  What's rolling around in your mind??  I'd love to know.  I'll pick the winners after I get back from my ROAD TRIP!!!!! 

Linking today...

Be a blessing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

freshly painted fingers and toes

scalp massages

friends that make you giggle

a soon to be "neighbor"

time with my girlies

meeting a special blogger face to face

 

in the zone

I knew this week was open.  I was going to have time to paint...yayayayay!!!!  You never know though if the inspiration will come.  Sometimes it's there.  It can be felt like the excitement of Christmas morning.  I can only describe it as magic.  For me I actually tingle a little bit;)  It's being in the zone.


We all experience it.  Maybe you feel it after you've made a beautiful meal and placed it before your family.  The table is set.  The candles are lit.  Maybe you went that extra mile and bought flowers.  Regardless of the amount of effort, you get that feeling of satisfaction.  You feel giddy with the space you've created.  The ingredients came together to form that delicious, eyes roll to the back of your head, goodness.


Maybe for others it's a clean house.  The floors are swept.  The bathrooms are sparkling.  The air smells fresh.  Or maybe it's after a hard run.  Your body is alive with endorphins. You feel spent.  Sweat and effort mingle and your body is rewarded with that perfect mix of exhaustion and exhilaration. 

Without a doubt that feeling can come for me when I sit down at my painting desk.  The brushes are in hand.  The paint is swirled...the first strokes begin the vision.  It's when an idea is formed and it's carried out to completion.

It's when I make something that I love and I don't even care if other people think it's good or not.  I know that I know that I love it.  And that is enough. 


I wish I could live in the zone.  I wish I could say that every time I sat down to paint or create that feeling came.  It doesn't.  Sometimes I start and it's just not there.  The painting looks horrendous.  The process is drudgery.  The end result is less than...  I feel insecure about showing it to anyone.  The zone didn't happen.  The grace just wasn't there. 


I know that living in a heightened stage of creativity is probably impossible, but I want to at least try to create something...anything daily.  What if there was no pressure to make a "masterpiece"??  What if it became more about fun and using my gifts?  What if I just let God lead my eye, take my hand?  Surely the magic would follow.  Surely the Master could use me to create a masterpiece...His masterpiece.  I believe that.  Whether it be a meal, a painting, or a workout etc...I want to be in His zone. 

**Hoping to make prints of my barn owl...and adding camera and luggage tags to my Etsy shop in May:)

Be a blessing.

 

birds chirping

 

buds blooming

sun streaming through my windows

a new spring shirt

a day with my sweet friends

a painting that made my heart pitter patter;)

 

 

yellow piano BLISS

Well hello there my sweet sweet friends.  I'm finally crawling out from under the Etsy craziness.  I really was a little nervous about cutting down my hours and going occasional, but God had other things in store, and He showed up in a big way.  You showed up in a BIG way!  Thank you for blessing my shop...my family!  My hands are aching from all the cuffs I made in the last ten days:)  I really can't say thank you enough!!! 


So with that said...I've been dying to show you my painted piano finally.  I've got most of the room pulled together.  It was a labor of love, and by love I mean L.O.V.E!  Here's how it went down.

Sometimes I wonder if I don't have a little bit of that bipolar thing going on.  There are days where I walk through life in a depressive fog...lethargic...floundering and then there are the sublime moments when a ray of sun shines down from above and the angels sing and I swear I can move mountains.  I walk through my house paintbrush in hand and I conquer.  YES CONQUER just about anything that has been bugging me.  Any unfinished project comes under my will and determination and that's where I was a couple of weeks ago.  You have to take advantage when it happens;)

My piano room was fine. No big problems there, but it was just blah! The red, white and black was a little lifeless and the piano (which I painted years before) just blended into the space like a big black hole. So I got an itch to repaint and then I instagrammed that I wanted to repaint, and then I HAD to repaint! You know how that goes.

If anything, instagram is one giant accountability partner...you gotta love that. Everyone voted their favorite color and it was a split big time between turquoise and bright funky yellow.  However the bright funky yellow was calling my name. 

IMMEDIATELY I ran out and bought the paint because that's how I rolled that week. And I was off to take down that black hole of a piano. After the first coat I excitedly texted a couple of friends and one said ooooh that's gonna be a challenge because you didn't prime. And I was like whatev...it'll be fine. :0

I had a reason for not priming. I was going to distress and I wanted the black to pop, BUT holy cow four coats in and I was starting to panic. It was not looking good. I had drips everywhere. I couldn't cover the black for the life of me. 

This always happens when I paint. There is that midway point when I want to curl up into a ball and cry in the corner...sucking my thumb. Well it came and then it went because once I got my palm sander out that piano started to SING!! If you don't have a palm sander run right now and go GET ONE! Best thing ever. It makes your mistakes look intentional. It takes a disaster and makes it look like magic:) 

So here are the steps for those of you wanting to try this at home. And just to clarify here I'm not a pro. This is probably not the proper way of doing it.

 

Obviously take it apart and tape off the areas you want to protect.

1.) If it's not painted already prime it. If it is, gently sand it to rough it up a bit and wipe it down.

2.) Paint. Paint. Paint. Paint again. It took me four coats. That really sucked. Sorry, but it did.

3.) Use that palm sander I told you to buy and sand the heck out of all the edges...any drips and place you want it to look old and aged. You really can't mess this up. Just be careful not to leave the sander in one place too long or you can eat the wood up a bit.

4.) Wipe it down and if you want rub on a little black coffee Martha Stewart metallic glaze. Especially on any areas you may have taken down to the bare wood. Rub on and off with a cloth.

5.) Then take a clean white rag and apply a very thin coat of paste wax. This will give it a hard top coat and protect it and kind of finish and shine it up. Then after it dries...about 20 minutes buff it off in small circles with another clean rag. And VOILA gorgeousness!!!!! Seriously you'll be kicking yourself that you didn't do it years before.

I wasn't really feeling the stark black piano bench, so I went hunting and found this sweet little industrial stool at a local antique store and voila...instant make-over...

 

MAGIC! 

 

Promise you won't covet my sewing skills;)

 

 

I displayed one of my vintage toy trucks, painted my brass lamp a funky turquoise and added my clock collection.  And all of a sudden it was bliss...pure decorating bliss.  All my favorite little things in one spot;)

 

 

I finally hung my BE tree (which had been sitting in a corner for two years) and added a new piece I'd been working on...dare to stand alone;)  Funny when I started that yellow farmhouse it was before I even knew about my yellow piano.  I didn't plan to put it in there.  I really didn't have a plan at all...but it looks perfect!

 

 

After it was all done I needed to revamp the room a bit, so I ran to Joann's IMMEDIATELY and bought some fabric to make pillows to tie it all together.  Cause that's how I roll remember;)  However my machine was not cooperating AT ALL...so I only got one made and I just pulled the rest from around the house.  Love the look though.  That one pillow made it;)

I have to say seeing that yellow piano makes me almost giddy.  The room glows.  It does!  It's happy and funky and suits me just perfectly. 

 I still have a little area I'm working on.  I'm thinking that lamp shade needs a redo, and the table needs a fresh coat of paint to pop...maybe turquoise;)??  I love pittering around the house.  It truly brings me joy changing things up.  Making them personal and mine. 

I promise I haven't forgotten about showing you the basement.  I have something I want to sew, and a thing I need to hang... It just takes time.

Be a blessing.

 

my shop is closed!!
seven weeks off;)
sales that made my heart explode
a yellow piano that glows
decorating bliss

master list and avocado burgers

One of the first things I do in the morning is check my phone. I delete a ton of junk emails, and then I check in with my Instagram friends. They are usually bright eyed and bushy tailed, most showing pics of steamy mugs of coffee and underlined scripture passages. It makes me smile. It makes me line up in thought. It makes me want to crack open my own Bible to see what God has for me.

John 15 is where it fell open this morning, and it was just what I needed.  I've been making lists.  I have several actually.  My master list is staring at me right now.  It's funny Alicia and I were just talking about this over the weekend. 


We've got dreams and things we would love to see happen in our lives and we want to figure it all out.  We've got to have a PLAN.  The problem is I have SO many things that I don't even know where to begin.  I'm not sure where to start and so I don't.  My list just sits on my desk teasing me.  When I was reading this passage this morning the "apart from me you can't do a thing," caught my eye. 


Maybe I've been planning (list making) a little too much.  Maybe I've been turning my wheels and not figuring out how to begin because I haven't really asked HIM for direction or help.  Maybe I'm a big useless branch that needs pruning back a bit to become stronger?  Regardless, it made me stop for a minute and realign.  I want to be fruitful.  I want a harvest...a BIG ONE, but I can't do it alone. I just can't.




The other day we decided to paint some farm animals.  I set up a table for the girls in my workroom and off they went...paint brushes flying.  By the time it was all said and done there were tears...big giant crocodile tears of frustration. 


Usually these feelings are reserved for me, but today it was my chicks;)  Both of them were so disappointed in their art work.  I kept telling them it's only paint, you can paint over it.  But in the back of my mind I'm thinking I totally get it.  How am I supposed to tell them to calm down and not worry about their craft when I do the same thing almost every time I create something??

[A quiet little spot we found in Williamsburg this week.]

Having a vision and not knowing how to get it to look like what you have in mind is frustrating.  We don't always know how to get from point A to point B.  We want it to wrap up all nice and neat and sometimes it just looks like a giant mess.  That's usually when I want to quit or never begin in the first place.  There is some fear involved with having dreams.  There is the potential to fail...to feel defeated or just plain rejected.  But what if...WHAT IF...we give it over...tie into the "vine" and expect HIS MASTER LIST to unfold??  It says our cup of joy will overflow!  OVERFLOW!!!!  I know I'm ready for that. 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Okay people this is good. 

Like get out a pen and paper right now GOOD.  These are my friend

Suzanne's Avocado Burgers.  She made them for us for dinner once and we were moaning and our eyes were rolling in the back of our heads. 

You'll need:
2 pounds of ground beef
1 mashed avocado
4 oz. can of diced green chilies (I didn't have this...substituted for half a can of green enchilada sauce)
1/4 cup chopped green onion (didn't have this either)
2 cloves of garlic minced (I used garlic from a jar)
1T of lemon pepper
1t of salt


Mash the avocado and mix all the other ingredients together.  Grill over medium heat for 5-7 minutes.  Top with shredded cheese.  Serve on toasted bun...makes 8 patties.

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You know the drill. If you want to party, grab my button, link up to a recipe post and let's FEED OUR FAMILIES:)

Have a blessed day.

656.  Lenina's bruschetta

657.  a prayer request being answered

658.  alone time with my big chick

659.  the porch swing being fixed by my honey

660.  cooler weather this week

661.  the fabulous amy bramer is finally opening her vintage inspired etsy shop today...check it out!!!!  it's gonna be great:)

when God steps in

Hello!!!!  We're back:)  It was such an amazing week.  I was homesick, really homesick and didn't even know it.  Everything about Illinois was so amazingly beautiful.  I truly made the most of the week and savored every second.  One of the most memorable things I did this week involved my daddy.

For the past year my dad has been mentioning a mural for his shed.  When he came to our house last Fall he sat at the kitchen table and sketched out just what he wanted.  He told me all the details....over and over again.  He bought a metal truck at Hobby Lobby several years ago and had a vision to see it driving down an old country road with grass between the lanes.  He wanted a red barn, a windmill, a split rail fence, a mailbox with their name on it...a bunny!  Too funny.

For Father's day I thought that would be the perfect gift. 

It was a really hot and windy day to be painting outside in a shed.  Really HOT!  The wind was whipping my hair in my face, and my dad decided to plop down in a lawn chair and watch me THE WHOLE TIME.  I begged him to leave, but if you know my dad you know he's stubborn to the core.  There was no moving him;) 

He didn't talk...just watched.  EEEEK!  I don't work that way.  For one thing I always have a slight panic attack when I paint.  I'm a fly by the seat of my pants artist...and this was important to him.  I wanted it to be really special.  Having him watch me was nervewracking.  I sent him on little errands to find me a bobby pin and to bring me sweet tea;)  And slowly stroke by stroke the painting started to take shape. 

I always marvel at how God steps in.  I had to go back into the house for something and I more or less pleaded with him to help me and I swear he sketched it out.  His hand was on those brushes!!  It turned out so much better than I could have dreamed.  The truck looked like it was meant to be there.  It blessed him down to his toes.  It will always be a day that I remember.  My Heavenly daddy workin' it out for me and my earthly daddy cheering me on...beaming with pride.  Does it get any better than that!   

Have a blessed day.

631.  wide open spaces

632.  lemon squares

633.  antiquing with my peeps

634.  a beautiful momento for my dad

635.  barns!!!

636.  the porch with the perfect view

637.  the finished bathroom

638.  Lori and Marylynn

639.  feeling missed by honey